Computer systems use a variety of user interface methods to display and manipulate information. An important consideration in computer systems is their ease of use and the intuitiveness of their user interface. Most popular computer systems today use a graphical user interface (GUI) on a computer display to interact with a user.
Typically, in GUIs, operations on objects of a computer system, such as files and folders, are performed by manipulating one or more icons displayed by the GUI. In this manner, the objects are moved, copied, deleted, renamed, and so forth. A common means of manipulating the icons of a GUI is by a manipulation operation known as a drag-and-drop operation. A drag-and-drop operation involves selecting an icon and, while keeping the icon selected, changing the spatial position of the icon in the GUI. Commonly, this is realized with a pointing device, such as a mouse, by clicking a button of the mouse on an icon, and keeping the button depressed while moving the mouse so as to ‘drag’ the icon to a new spatial position in the GUI.
Manipulation operations, such as the drag-and-drop operation, often involve a number of other icons, or portions of the GUI, in addition to a selected icon. In the case of the drag-and-drop operation described above, a ‘drop target’ is usually involved. The ‘drop target’ is the final position to which the selected icon will be dragged, and is commonly another icon, a window, ‘empty’ space in the GUI, a toolbar, and the like. The drag-and-drop operation is completed by dropping the selected icon on the ‘drop target’.
With present GUIs, it is not readily apparent to a user what the possible ‘drop targets’ for the selected icon are. Even after a drag-and-drop operation has commenced after selection of an icon, the available valid ‘drop targets’ are not made known to the user for the selected icon. A disadvantage is that, the user is required to rely on trial-and-error to determine what targets are considered to be valid ‘drop targets’, and if the drag-and-drop operation is even applicable to the selected icon. A further disadvantage is that the user has no way of readily ascertaining what the result of a drag-and-drop operation will be. For example, there is no indication to a user if a drag-and-drop operation performed on an icon will result in the icon being moved or copied.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an improved GUI, capable of providing the user with better guidance for any GUI based operations.